I write this not to ask "Why do you only focus on X when Y is so more important?" Rather, I am writing because the issue has been gnawing at me for several months now, and that, coupled with a recent experience, has made me realize that perhaps we ought to explore more of an issue that, to me, is problematic within the feminist community.
A short story about the experience that got me thinking about women of the Global South: I was standing at a security checkpoint just the other day, watching four women share a bottle of water, in 120-degree heat. Just as I was thinking of how touching that moment was, I saw another soldier get out of his vehicle and with bottles of water in hand, proceeded to wash off the windshield of his vehicle. The irony and discrepancy of privilege struck me. Coupled with recent conversations with friends about the lack of attention paid to the lives of women in reconstruction and post-war nation-building, as well as the New York Times' coverage of women's rights from a global perspective, I began thinking about military operations and international politics, and whether we're asking the critical and important questions about women's lives. In all this, I came to a realization that not only are we not asking those critical questions, but that too often, we're neglecting to ask any questions or take any interest in women's lives at all.
I'll be up front: I get the feeling we're not focusing enough on bettering the lives of women in the Global South.
Whether through political activism, on Feministing, or conversations around the water cooler, it seems transnational feminism is something we rarely take on or speak of, and when we do, the conversations lack the fervor and passion we often show for the issues we choose to take on - namely the objectification of and violence against women, reproductive justice, and personal choices.
While I do not deny these are important issues we must all take on, both to better and enhance our own lives, as well as enhancing the lives of the women and men around us, there is an undeniable obligation we, as those with privilege, as compared to women of the Global South, must take on. There is no "global sisterhood," but rather various degrees of oppression and sexism that different women face. Simply by making better the lives of the women in our nation, and within our culture, we do not make the lives of women in poverty-stricken nations any better.
Perhaps our lack of engagement toward the world community as feminists has to do with our lack of connection with them. After all, it's hard to feel the same passion for them if we do not see the challenges they face, or share some of the same lived-experiences they've had, because of our differences in culture. Our stoicism, then, isn't due to our lack of feminist values, but rather, a lack of connection.
This lack of connection, in turn, becomes a lack of engagement, and a cyclical process begins. To better the lives of women of the Global South, we must first be able to frame feminist questions around their lives rather than our own, but without the knowledge of the challenges they face, we are neither able to come up with the questions that need asking, or the solutions that need helping hands. To further add to the problem, this lack of interest also creates a challenge in academia, in which issues surrounding the lives of Global South women do not receive the same degree of attention as other issues, and as a result, grants are denied to those who, in rare instances, wish to study the lives of the women who need our help most.
How do we fix this problem, then? How do we get those interested in women's rights to focus more attention of women of the Global South? I posit that we start with an overhaul of Women's Studies programs by putting more emphasis on transnational feminism.
Through my own experiences, Introduction to Women's Studies courses are, more often than not, ethnocentric - choosing to focus on the lives of Western women and talking about issues important to them, rather than the overall challenges various women face.
While this most certainly important in helping young women find their voices, by the time students make a commitment to Women's Studies as a major, and in higher-level classes that focus on theory and women's rights from a global sense, many have already found their comfort zones and areas of interest and expertise within the field of study, very few of which include transnational feminism. Women and development (in a nation-building, economic-development, international political action sense) has to be given an equal forum within academia and Women's Studies community, with the same dedication and care we've seen and been given regarding "traditional" feminist issues.
Thinking back, I particularly remember as a double major in political science and women's studies that, while my women's studies classmates and I were focused on issues of interests to us because of our gender or experiences, and while my political science classmates focused on issues and theories dealing with international and national political theories, only one woman - a classmate born in Africa, actually spent her studies researching the lives of Global South women. In our search for our own voices, we failed to listen to the voices of those who need our help most. If we're going to attempt to make the lives of these women better - or more appropriately, give them the opportunities to make their own lives better, we need to take more of an interest in them, in both academia and activism.
What are your thoughts? Why did you choose to take on the feminist issues you take on? How can we, as a community, make transnational feminism more appealing? How can we make Chandra Mohanty and CEDAW just as familiar and popular as Jessica Valenti and VAWA? What do you think are our biggest challenges in engaging people in transnational feminism?
I can't really offer any solutions at this point, except the promise that I'll make more of a commitment to care about the lives and challenges of women in the Global South, as I do about the feminism I've grown to know and love.
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beautiful post. i wholeheartedly agree with the following and wanted to emphasize these points:
"There is no "global sisterhood," but rather various degrees of oppression and sexism that different women face. Simply by making better the lives of the women in our nation, and within our culture, we do not make the lives of women in poverty-stricken nations any better."
Yes! I don't think "trickle-down" feminism works very well between classes or countries - perhaps only with generations.
Women of other cultures (I straddle two) tend to think of women's rights very differently and with different priorities than Americans, and there's nothing wrong with that.
I think the broad goal of feminism is to work towards creating societies that eliminates sexist barriers to self-determination for people of all genders with the understanding that people WILL make different, even opposite, choices. As Americans, we have to learn about what women in other countries actually want for themselves before we start fighting for their rights...otherwise, whose ideals are we really fighting for? Theirs, or ours?
"Perhaps our lack of engagement toward the world community as feminists has to do with our lack of connection with them. After all, it's hard to feel the same passion for them if we do not see the challenges they face, or share some of the same lived-experiences they've had, because of our differences in culture. Our stoicism, then, isn't due to our lack of feminist values, but rather, a lack of connection."
I tend to think that as Americans, we are culturally disengaged from the world in general, and not just with regards to feminism.
I am a woman of two cultures, though I'm not sure if I would fall into the "global south" category - I have never heard that term before. If you could please define geographically what you mean by that, that would be very helpful!
Thanks again for your great post.
Hi there - thanks for a great response.
"Global South" and "Global North" are terms often used in academia and non-profit NGO circles to describe the geo-political divide between "developed" and "undeveloped" nation states.
By Global South, in this sense, I meant to talk about underdeveloped countries where econominic structures pale in comparison developed nations.
In short, Global South is a more sensitive word, in some circles, for "Third-world."
Let me ask: how do you think we can market transnational feminism to speak to feminists who currently do not involve themselves in the affairs/studies of women from underdeveloped nations?
Marc